payment |Unpaid payment

Unpaid payment



An undue payment must always be repaid!
It happens to everyone once: you transfer money to the wrong account. In this case, the recipient of the amount is obliged to simply return the money to you. After all, it is a mistake. But what if he does not want that? Have you lost your money just like that? Fortunately, you have rights to such an undue payment and you can reclaim the amount - if necessary with the help of a lawyer.

Re-claim undue payment? An attorney can advise you about the possibilities in an extrajudicial as well as in a legal procedure.

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What is an undue payment?
An undue payment is - to put it simply - a payment (or performance) that was not actually intended. It means that you have given someone a sum of money or good, without a legal basis for it (such as a purchase, debt or donation). An undue payment is therefore a payment that is not against, an error. In the law it is as follows:

"Performing without a legal basis, for example, payment to a traffic person who has no ground for it, gives the person who performed the right to recover the performance. If the undue payment concerns a sum of money, the claim for the return of an equal amount. The person who has performed a service of a different nature without a legal basis shall also be entitled to undo it from the recipient. "

In practice, it often means that money was accidentally transferred to the wrong account. Or you paid too much for an invoice, for example you made € 3000, - instead of € 300, -. It is also possible that you have paid an invoice twice by mistake. That can be scary. Have you lost that money now? Luckily not. The recipient of the undue payment is obliged by law to return the money, sometimes even with interest.

As soon as there is an undue payment, a commitment arises between the two parties: one is entitled to a refund, the other must return the same good (in the same condition!).

Unfortunately, that is not always easy. Maybe the recipient does not want to return the money or he has already spent it. In such a situation it can be useful to call a lawyer.

It is not always about money
Although 'payment' implies that there is a sum of money, it can also be an undue payment of goods or services. The concept must therefore be interpreted broadly.

undue payment

Examples of undue payments
When is something exactly an undue payment? There are enough examples. We have listed a number of them here.

Money is transferred to the wrong bank account number. Thanks to the IBAN number, this is less common nowadays.
An invoice is accidentally paid twice. With the second payment there is no legal basis and the amount can be reclaimed.
A too large amount is transferred when paying an invoice, a '0-tje' too much for example.
The conclusion of a legally valid agreement, which is destroyed afterwards (for whatever reason). The legal basis for the payment then falls away, it is not already delivered / paid must be reversed.
In a particular case, the court ordered the counterparty to pay a certain amount. This money can be claimed immediately. However, he appeals and wins, the verdict is destroyed. There is now an undue payment.
A debt collection agency sends out letters stating that payment must be made. This is not true, because there is no claim. The recipient will pay the amount. Besides that this is punishable, there is now an undue payment.
A painter paints your house, instead of the neighbor's house. The painter then paid unduly.
You have ordered 20 laptops, but the supplier delivers too much. The overpaid laptops have been paid unduly. The supplier can reclaim it.
Commitment to reimbursement
If it turns out that there is an undue payment, the sum of money or the good must be repaid. There is a commitment of reimbursement. This means that the recipient is obliged to pay back. There are 2 options:

The recipient was in good faith: the recipient thought the good was actually for him. He can be reimbursed for the costs and any damage he has suffered as a result of the undue payment.
The recipient was not in good faith: he actually knew that it was not good for him, but still used / kept it. He will have to pay for any damage to the property and / or pay interest.
Sometimes it can be a perishable payment for perishable goods. The receiver can therefore no longer return it in the same state. There may also be damage to the good. The agreement can no longer be fulfilled correctly. In that case, compensation can be claimed, but only if the recipient was not in good faith.

Claim an undue payment
The recipient is therefore obliged to repay the sum of money or the good. Usually a friendly note is enough in these situations. You indicate that an error has been made and you want to get the goods back. If it concerns a wrong transfer, please contact your bank first. They will request the recipient to refund the amount. If he does not, you will receive his name and address details from your bank. You can then do three more things:
you contact yourself again,
you get to court, or
you enable a collection agency.
If the recipient does not give it back and the amount (or value) is large enough, it is wise to call in a lawyer to enforce a claim for undue payment, if necessary through the courts. The rule of thumb is that the claim must be at least € 500 to be able to make a case of it.

fixprice-2 Does the recipient return the money to your bank account and does he incur costs? Then he is entitled to a reimbursement of these costs.

What if the good can not be reclaimed?
Sometimes a good is impossible to recover. Think of the example with the painter who paints the wrong house. He can hardly pick up the paint from the house, and nobody shoots that too. The owner of the house now owes a payment to the painter, even though he did not ask for that paint job at all! In the case of an undue payment of services (or other things that can not be recovered), the rule applies to what the recipient would have had at the time. So different things play: what was the state of the house? Was it just painted or had it not been done for 10 years ... Has the house increased in value? The value of the service must be reimbursed insofar as this is reasonable. The refund is only required if the recipient:

is enriched by the performance, for example the house has become more valuable,
it is due to him that the performance has been performed, he has seen the painter painting but did not say anything about it, or
he has undertaken to provide a consideration.
This may seem like a lucrative business for the painter, but that is not the case. He receives at most a fraction of his original bill. He therefore misses a lot of money and is especially unlucky.

Request unpaid payment? Both in an out-of-court and in a legal procedure your lawyer can advise you about the possibilities.